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The American Revolution. 



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YORKTOWN 



AND THE 



Centennial Monument oi Liberty. 



BY THOMAS J. PA TEkS< k\. 



Rochester, N. Y., October 1st, 1881. 




o- 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. : 

HEKVEV II. SMITH, PRINTER, 

123 WEST MAIN ST. 



Preface and Dedication. 



The Monument to be erected on one of the islands 
in the harbor of New York, is a copper Statue of 
Liberty, more than one hundred feet in height, which 
is furnished by France, leaving- to the American peo- 
ple the construction of a pedestal. It is well that 
France takes a leading part in erecting the Monu- 
ment. It will perpetuate recollections of her greatest 
glory. The American people will never forget the 
noble part she took in the Revolution. It is the 
brightest and a sparkling gem in her royal diadem. 

The meeting in Paris at which it was determined 
to erect the Monument, first suggested the following 
production, which was outlined when confined, with 
my vision darkened by cataracts, and afterwards 
written out. Not being personally acquainted with 
Mr. Washburn, it was forwarded to him by a friend 
— Hon. Alfred Ely. He returned it with the follow- 
ing note : 

Chicago, April 24th, 1878. 
Dear Mr. Ely. 

After quite an absence I returned home 
to find your favor of the 4th instant, with the enclos- 
ure. I have read the article with great interest, and 
have submitted it to some friends. Please thank Mr. 
Paterson for his great politeness in sending the same 
to me. It is thought by my friends, as well as my- 
self, it would be better to have it published first in the 
East, and then copied by the papers here. I there- 
fore return the article, and when published shall hope 
to receive an early copy, 

Very Truly Yours, &c, 

E. B. WASHBURN. 
Hon. Alfred Ely. 



— 2 — 

When the above note was written the Society was 
not ready to commence work on the pedestal, and it 
was advised not to publish the article until it was. 
The matter has been delayed longer than was antici- 
pated, and as the article describes the closing scenes 
of the Revolution at Yorktown, and as the celebra- 
tion there will be the last of the Centennials, it should 
be published now, if ever. 

Meeting with approval in so distinguished a quar- 
ter, I venture to dedicate the article to the Society 
having in charge the erection of the monument, trust- 
ing it may be made instrumental in awakening an in- 
terest in the enterprise that w r ill secure an appropri- 
ate, lofty, pyramidal pedestal, to a monument grand 
in its conception, standing as it will an everlasting 
sentinel, proclaiming to the world through the ages 
the right of all men to be free; and that in civilized 
nations Sovereigns and Rulers ought to be the crea- 
tions of and servants of the people — never their mas- 
ters. 

Grand as the monument will be, a new inspiration 
may be imparted to it, by surmounting the pedestal 
with the statues of Washington and LaFayette, 
Counts De Rochambeau and De Grasse, Hamilton 
and Baron De Viomenil, making it historical and a 
fitting commemoration, not only of the birth of free- 
dom in the New World and the American Revolu- 
tion, but of the crowning triumph in it. Creditable 
not only to patriotic France and the American peo- 
ple, but to the great emporium of the western world, 
when the seat of commercial empire leaves the British 
Isles, crosses the waves, and rears her glittering 
throne within our borders, and New York becomes 
the Island Empress of the Seas. 

THOMAS J. PATERSON. 

Rochester, September 26th, 1881. 



The American Revolution. 



YORKTOWN 

AND THE 

Centennial Monument oi Liberty. 



BY THOMAS J. PATERSON. 



At a meeting held some time ago in Paris, at which 
the Hon. Elihu B. Washburn, the American Minister, 
presided, it was determined by patriotic Frenchmen 
to erect in the harbor of, or on the coast near New 
York, a Monument to commemorate the one-hun- 
dredth year of American Independence, which was 
aided into life by generous France. 

It is the Centennial Monument of Liberty in mem- 
ory of the immortal birth of Freedom on these con- 
secrated shores, around the perilous labor, toil and 
suffering that ushered that liberty into life. 

" A hundred years have expanded their dusky wings," 
Yet a living glory looks out on the fair time ; 
When this second-born of Heaven, and child of the skies, 
" Came down to the earth bidding Columbia to glory arise." 

The flames of liberty that first illuminated Greece 
and wrapped Morea's hills in fire, lighting up the 
Italian plains, and shooting their meteor flashes from 
the star-crowned peaks of the Alps, were going down 



— 4— 
in everlasting- night, when the pilgrims, fleeing from 
persecution, caught the sacred flame, and, inspired by 
Heaven, committed their lives and fortunes to the 
mercy of the winds and waves, crossing a tempestous 
and pathless ocean, seeking freedom of conscience 
and a home upon the bleak and storm-swept shores 
of a New World, where they pitched their tents and 
reared their altars, devoted to the service of the ever- 
living God, upon immortal camping grounds. In 
front was a boundless wilderness untrodden by civil- 
ized man, full of beasts of prey and savage red men, 
as wild as they. In the rear foam-crowned mountain 
waves, lashed into fury by the wintry tempests, keep- 
ing up a perpetual roar. Their cabin fires had 
scarcely lit up the forests, frightning the wolf from 
their doors, when savage war, pestilence and famine 
beset them, the destroying angel doing his dreadful 
work at noonday as well as at the midnight hour. 
With an unfaltering trust that their mission was Di- 
vine, and would be favored by Heaven, they cheer- 
fully entered an inhospitable climate, bufletting fear- 
ful storms and terrible winters, with insufficient food 
and clothing, resisting the merciless assaults of savage 
tribes, encountering sickness, sorrow and suffering, 
such as the world had not witnessed — perils greater 
than those of the Children of Israel in the wilderness 
of Sinai, or in their passage through the Red Sea. 
Inspiration from on high was the cloud by day and 
the pillar of fire by night, that led them in all their 
wanderings in the wilderness, spiriting them on to 
battle and victory over the Indians, conquering peace 
and securing treaties that gave them rightful posses- 
sion of the country, which were too often violated 
by treacherous Indians, leading to other wars and 
more frequent massacres, which ever made the red 
man the terror of advancing civilization: coming as 
he did when least expected, flitting through the dark- 
ness of night like ghosts from the infernal regions, 



— 5— 
striking down unprotected women and children, 
whole families and neighborhoods with tne war club, 
tomahawk and scalping knife. 

Nothing could long check the march of empire. 
Strong arms subdued the forests ; cultivated fields 
produced the manna upon which the people subsisted. 
With added numbers new settlements sprang up in 
every direction, organized for self defense, often in 
little openings in the woods, oases in the desert 
that made the wilderness bloom and blossom as 
the rose. Churches were formed and schools 
everywhere established, which became nurseries of 
freemen, after generations of whom, mingling with 
kindred spirits, determined to be free, coming down 
from noble contributions of Holland and other lands. 
Stretching with them their arms around Virginia, 
clasping hands with the descendents of the Hugenots, 
the planter pilgrims of the South, who were driven 
from happy homes beyond seas, to wander and 
suffer in the wilderness for opinion's sake, cementing 
a union that enfranchised an Empire. The col- 
onies in their infancy were neglected, and when strug- 
gling for a doubtful existence left without aid. But 
when it became certain they would become a power 
in the world, the strong arm of the mother country 
was stretched over them, and they were held in an 
iron grasp. They were refused representation and 
oppressed with ta/.;es, that unresisted would have 
made them slaves. Free Trade was prohibited, man- 
ufacturing discountenanced, and establishments for 
producing the simplest articles of necessity raized to 
theground. Every privilege was denied them calcu- 
lated to make them prosperous and happy. Royal 
governors were sent to preside over them, followed by 
swarms of petty officials, inflated with the importance 
of their mission, to aid in enforcing parliamentary 
exactions, who were quartered upon the people, eat- 
ing out their substance, greatly irritating and tyran- 



— 6— 

izing over them, some of whom were transported 
beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses, others 
made prisoners and forced to fight against kindred 
and country. The injuries imposed upon the people 
were innumerable, against which remonstrance after 
remonstrance, with humble petitions asking for re- 
dress were placed at the foot of the throne, and pre- 
sented to Parliament, which were answered by still 
more tyrannical impositions. Insurrection was exci- 
ted, laws suspended, and the tribunals of Justice closed. 
The seas were plundered, coasts ravaged, towns 
burned, and the Indians incited to massacre, greatly 
exasperating an already indignant people. The 
lightning flashes from Lexington and Concord her- 
alded the approaching storm. The battle of Bunker 
Hill was a clap of thunder in a clear sky, waking up 
the people and teaching them they must fight if they 
would be free. 

The colonial mothers, matrons of the Revolution, 
long before caught the inspiration, and were mighty 
instrumentalities in setting in motion the wheels of 
revolution. They saw the tyrannical rule would de- 
grade their sons and daughters, and no sacrifice was 
too great for them to make in resisting it. They re- 
jected British merchandise and the tax-cursed tea, 
their dearest beverage, that more than sparkling 
wine and all things else limbered their tongues and 
made their evenings happy. In the absence of their 
fathers, husbands, sons and brothers defending the 
country, they planted the fields and gathered in the 
harvests. The)' emulated the Spartan mother, by 
arming their sons and sending them forth to battle, 
not to return until their country was free, but wounded 
or in the arms of glorious death, or bearing the hon- 
ors of immortal victory. 

Congress was an embodiment of patriotism, intelli- 
gence and wisdom the world had not before witnessed. 
There were giants in it. Jefferson, the author of the 



Declaration of Independence, that immortal instru- 
ment that lit up our pathway through all the gloomy 
hours of the Revolution, waving on high his blazing 
locks, indicative of the patriot fires that burned within. 
Adams, the illustrious prophet of liberty, who saw 
through faith's transpiercing eye, that with strong 
arms, determined spirit and unity of purpose bright 
years of hope and a never-fading crown of glory 
might be secured to his country. Franklin, the prince 
of ambassadors, the patriot statesman and philosopher, 
who in storms and tempests, amid the thunder's roar, 
curbed the lightning's flash. Hancock, a princely 
merchant, with an earldom at command if he would 
adhere to the interest of the British Crown, but whom 
the wealth of the Indies could not purchase, having 
" millions for defense but not a cent for tribute." 
Morris, the accomplished financier, who, next to 
Washington, was the most important spoke in the 
wheel of our political salvation. Samuel Adams, the 
most perfect inspiration of disinterested patriotism, 
intelligence and wisdom in all its simplicity and purity 
the country has ever produced. Peter Hopkins, 
whose signature to the Declaration was traced with 
a trembling hand, not from fear but from the infirmi- 
ties of age. Roger Sherman, a disinterested patriot 
and able royal plebian, one of the noblest works of 
God — an honest man. Robert R. Livingston, one of 
that immortal phalanx which first proclaimed to an 
astonished world the right of all men to be free, and 
ushered into life an empire that is free. Richard 
Henry Lee, whose Resolution launched the bolt that 
broke the chain that held the world in bondage. El- 
bridge Gerry, Caesar Rodney, Arthur Middleton, 
Rush, Rutledge, Chase, Stockton, Morris, Wythe, 
Wolcott, Bartlett, Hooper, Hall, Huntington and 
Carroll, with other unbending patriots, the equal of 
the ablest and the best in that peerless body, having 
under consideration the Declaration of Independence, 



— 8— 

the most momentous political question ever agitated 
among men. 

It was a fearful thing to break off the connection 
with the mother country, and in view of the fearful, 
the tremendous responsibility they must assume, with 
a price upon their heads and a gibbet staring them 
in the face, all seemed in doubt, when Richard Henry 
Lee rose in the awful stillness that prevailed in the 
Hall of Independence, and advocate^ the adoption of 
the Declaration with an eloquence as resistless as the 
voice of blood, and iii strains uncqualed Adams touched 
anew the golden harp of freedom, speaking in words 
that burned of the violated rights of the people, of 
the gross infraction of the mother country of every 
principle of justice to the colonies, against which they 
had remonstrated in vain, asking for a country and the 
hope of that country freedom, when nerves that trem. 
bled were made strong, and spirits drooped revived, 
and were ready to go bound to the altar already reek- 
ing with the blood of precious victims, conscious that 
legions would rise from their ashes to maintain the 
liberties of the people, vindicate their motives and 
avenge their wrongs. 

The work was done. The Declaration was adopted 
and the genius of liberty that had been hovering over 
the hall in doubt if she would be permitted to take 
up her abode here upon earth, or be compelled to 
wing her flight back to her native Heaven, expanded 
her pinions and winged her flight over a thousand 
hills The Declaration could only be maintained by 
fearful sacrifices. " We must fight ; I repeat, we 
must fight! There is nothing left us but an appeal 
to arms and the God of Hosts !" "Give me Liberty, 
or give me Death!" was an inspiration from on 
high, and the eloquence of Henry became a battle 
cry of freedom. Eloquent voices were everywhere 
arousing the people, and calling them to arms. 
They came from populous districts and scattered for- 



— 9— 

est homes, from mountains, hills and valleys, by nar- 
row passes and winding forest paths — free men, un- 
contaminated by luxury or vice, who knew their 
rights and were ready to defend them. They were 
in costumes varied and ludicrous, such as inspired 
" Yankee Doodle " for ridicule, which became a mirth- 
inspiring national air. 

Washington, who was called to the great command, 
seemed destined by Heaven to work out for himself 
and his race a higher and a nobler destiny than the 
most gifted and exalted among men. The bright 
promises of hope awakened by the virtuous training 
of youth, were more than realized in after years- 
From the cradle to the grave he seemed an object of 
Divine protection. At the defeat of Braddock, who, 
with his officers, were killed or wounded, Washing- 
ton alone escaped unharmed, although in the thickest 
of the fight, with several horses killed under him and 
many bullets shot through his clothes. Indian war- 
riors who took deliberate aim and shot repeatedly at 
at him, became convinced that he was not to be killed 
by the hand of man ; that the Great Spirit had thrown 
around him an invisible shield, which, as afterwards, 
protected him from ever)* shaft of death. When in 
the depths of the forest he was cast .among broken 
ice in a turbulent winter flood, his escape seemed 
as miraculous as that of Moses in the bulrushes. 
Clustering around him, or in the field, were his chosen 
leaders. Warren, one of the first and noblest victims 
sacrificed upon the altar of American Liberty, had 
gone before, and was followed b} 7 Montgomery and 
his aid-de-camp — McPherson, lofty and heroic spirits, 
the glory of New York and of the Emerald Isle ; and 
by the brave Herkimer, calm and undisturbed when 
commanding in the embrace of death ; the ill-fated 
Nash, Thomas and Davidson ; the gallant and heroic 
Worcester, and the noble Mercer ; by the martyred 
hero DeKalb, and the gallant and dashing Pulaski, 



— IO — 

who were noble contributions of the Orient, and by 
Colonels Knowlton, Francis, Haslitt, Fleming, Col- 
burn, Paris, Cox, Mathews, Bonner, Green, Dennison, 
Potter, Porterfield, Ford, Ledyard, Williams, Camp- 
bell, Scammel, Lawrence, and many other noble vic- 
tims and heroic leaders, who perished that we might 
live ; some of them by the death most desired by all 
the brave, whose martyrdom was the seed of liberty. 
And there was Green, another Joshua, who if the 
fates had declared against the great commander, 
would have led the people over Jordan. LaFayette, 
the youthful hero and noble Frenchman, the friend 
and favorite of Washington. Hamilton, his lieuten- 
ant and right arm, the peerless warrior, statesman 
and skillful pilot, who aided him in conducting the 
Ship of State over boisterous seas. The devoted, 
generous and gallant Knox, his war minister ; Kos- 
ciusco, Warsaw's last champion, and the noble-hearted 
Steuben — hero warriors, who came to the rescue from 
beyond seas ; the self-sacrificing, generous and mag- 
nanimous patriot Schuyler, Lincoln, with clouded for- 
tunes, yet honored and trusted by Washington, Sul- 
livan, Sterling, Poor, Moultry, Clintou and other dis- 
tinguished and able leaders of patriot citizen soldiers, 
the bulwarks of liberty. And there were the heaven- 
protected and lion-hearted champions of freedom, 
Morgan, .Stark, Putnam and Wayne, the " mad An- 
thony," and a terror of the Indians. With those 
intrepid Sons of Mars, Sumpter, Pickens, Williams, 
Gist and Small wood, Sumner, Stevens and those he- 
roic, dashing and gallant cavaliers Lee and Washing- 
ton, with the matchless and immortal Marion ; Allen, 
who commanded "in the name of the Great Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress." The veteran Porae- 
roy, with Generals Maxwell, Paterson, McDougal, 
St. Clair, Parsons, Nelson and the noble Huger, with 
other untiring patriots, and that son of glory, the 
lion-hearted Jasper, the model soldier and immortal 



1 1 



standard bearer, with Colonels Prescott, Warner, 
Willetts, Gansovert, Meigs, Fleury, Smith, Reed, 
DeBuyson, Tilghman, Sever, Shelby, Clark, Cleve- 
land, Campbell, White, Kirkwood, Howard, Hender- 
son, Hampton, and many other devoted champions 
of freedom, the pride of New England, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, Georgia and the Carolinas — some of them front- 
eersmen, forest warriors, whose deeds of valor elec- 
trified the people. 

Then there was Bid well, who perished, Paul Jones, 
Barry, Barney, Rathbone, Nicholson, Talbot, Whip- 
ple, Wickes and Coyningham, with other youthful 
Nelsons of an infant Navy, who rode the waves tri- 
umphant. And there was Patrick Henry, Jay, Clin- 
ton, Lawrence, Rutledge, Quincey, Otis, Gadsden, 
Drayton, Pendleton, Madison and Mason, with many 
other illustrious civilians whose indelible footprints 
are on the sands of time ; with other military chief- 
tains now numbered with the mighty dead, who, with 
all in the bright array are entitled to a shining record 
high up upon the scrolls of fame. They were brave 
spirits, read)' for any sacrifice, living for their coun- 
try, humanity, their families and glory, aiding or fol- 
lowing the great leader through that baptism of fire 
and blood, when war's red tempest swept around our 
borders, lit up the seas and wrapped the 'States in 
sheets of battle flame. 

There was no North, no South, but, as decreed by 
Heaven, one Country, seeking a common destiny. 
Washington's great arms rested upon the centre and 
the remotest sections, and they never deserted him. 
New York and Philadelphia had fallen, and the tidal 
wave of victory that rolled down the Hudson from 
Ticonderoga, Bennington and Saratoga was checked. 
At the battles around New York and at Montmouth, 
Princeton, Trenton, Germantown, Brandywine, New 



— 12 — 

England, Canada and the South, fortunes were vary- 
ing, alternating between victory and defeat. 

The war ran through long years. The States were 
impoverished, the cause imperiled by avarice, treach- 
ery, defection, and doubt. Gloom and despair 
darkened the midnight of the Revolution. Many 
were the perils the great leaders had to encounter in 
conducting the Ship of State. They could not create. 
Washington recognized the situation and husbanded 
his slender means, which might have been sacrificed 
in a single battle, without the probability of acquiring 
more before all would have been lost. Exhibiting as 
much of greatness on the retreat as on the field of 
victory, combatting as he was an empire with bound- 
less means and large and well-appointed armies, with 
but few troops, poorly clad, indifferently equipped, 
reduced often to a state of starvation, tracking 
blood over the frozen ground with their bare and lac- 
erated feet, exhibiting a devotion and heroism that 
should ever keep their memory green. In the dark- 
est hours of the Revolution, when careworn and wea- 
ried, with difficulties thickning around him, and dark- 
ness hovering over him, Washington never despaired, 
but was found equal to the occasion. When friends 
faltered, partisans deserted, demagogues assailed him, 
and the bad passions of the people were appealed to, 
the sea hut recently so smooth, was lashed into fury 
and dashed angrily around him. In robes of immor- 
tal dignity, with his feet upon the rock of ages, he 
surveyed the scene, and calm, grand and sublime trod 
the waters of earthly strife, and stood as firm as the 
everlasting mountains, whose adamantine loundations 
meet and roll back the advancing waves, and was 
ever ready to strike the enemy a blow when it could 
be made effective. At his night crossing of the Del- 
aware, he seemed a storm-god with aerial warriors 
dashing through the early mists of morning, and 
lighting upon the Hessians. At the battle of Mont- 



— 13— 
mouth, he appeared the white horseman of the Apoc- 
alyptic Angel, sweeping over the plains to conquer, 
meeting Lee's flying battalions, turning them back 
and rescuing victory from defeat. 

The curtain rises, and scenes and battles of the 
Revolution pass in vision before us. We hear the 
low mutterings of the rising tempest. The troubled 
sea is turned into a teapot, and the sons of Liberty 
are steeping in it whole cargoes of old Mother Eng- 
land's tax-tainted tea. We see the Indian with a 
stealthy and cat-like tread flitting through darkness ; 
we hear his demoniac yell, and the screams of women 
and children that make night hideous. We see front- 
eersmen flying for life, by the light of their burning 
forest homes. The tomahawk and scalping knife are 
doing their dreadful workaround the fronteer, on the 
Hudson and Mohawk, at Cherry Vallev and at the 
fearful massacre of Wyoming, where white men be- 
come demons and are more brutal and merciless than 
the savage — the son striking down father, mother, 
brothers and sisters ; 

Where infant innocence and decrepitude and age, 
Vigorous youth, manhood, matron and maid 

perish by the assassin's hand, when pleading for 
mercy. Yet the scene is scarcely more terriffic than 
the British and Tory warfare North and South, 
where fathers, sons and brothers embue their hands 
in each other's blood, and ladies of rank and fortune, 
women and children, arc made helpless, homeless, 
starving wanderers, and the slaves are incited to mas- 
sacre their master's families, where rapine and mur- 
der, the torch, fire and sword, and the indiscriminate 
slaughter by traitor, tory, savage and bruitish butch- 
ers mark the pathway of desolation. 

We see the cause imperiled by the treason of a son 
of Lucifer, and the uplifted dagger drop from the as- 
sassin grasp of a traitor warrior at the capture of 



— 14— 
Andre. And we see the lofty spirit of Washington 
bending under a weight of grief, at the defection and 
treason of some of his chosen leaders, and the neglect 
and want, that engendered mutiny in a suffering, 
naked, starving army, and the exhibition of moral 
heroism never equaled in his stern rejection of a royal 
diadem, and marching on to accomplish his great 
mission. 

A brighter day is dawning. The inspirations of 
patriotism and humanity are spreading ; a light is 
beaming on the hills of America, and illuminating 
her valleys, yet a storm is gathering. The angels 
of death are hovering over those barbaric hells, 
the prison ships, the tempest is up and a slum- 
bering vengeance is aroused that mounts the whirl- 
wind and rides out the storm. We behold on the 
foam-crested wave the victories of the champions 
of freedom, whose triumphs are on the sea. We see 
the Bon Homme Richard in a death grapple with 
the Serapis, a superior, in a combat never equaled, 
win a victory that is immortal. Then, with tattered 
sails, shivered mast, broken prow and shattered hull, 
go down with colors flying, freighted with dead he- 
roes, in a blaze of glory ! We hear the war trumpet, 
the battle horn, the silver notes of the bugle, the spirit- 
stirring drum and ear-piercing fife. Flying squadrons 
with prancing war horses are dashing over the plains. 
We see tented fields, British legions, mercenary hosts, 
scarlet uniforms and gay paladins in battle array ad- 
vancing; and ho! the Sons of Liberty, they come! 
they come ! We see them as they come— the dark 
battalions with glittering arms, nodding plumes and 
waving banners, marching proudly away to fields of 
glory. We hear the thunder of cannon, and amid 
belching fires and volcanic explosions, the whiz of 
ball and bursting shell ; in front and on the skirmish- 
ing lines the death rattle of small arms and whistling 
bullet; flanking parties of plumed warriors meet and 



—i5— 
are driven back, cavalry brigades with drawn sabres 
and armed legions with bristling bayonets are follow- 
ing battle flags and plunging into the thickest of the 
fight. The field appears one vast volcano wrapped 
in sheets of battle flame, and the deep-mouthed thun- 
dering of artilery shakes the earth. Fortunes are 
varying; the reserves are ordered up and come 
quickly into action, and in the deafning roar of cannon, 
amid whistling balls, bursting shells and blazing rock- 
ets the banners of England and the ensigns of the 
young Republic are moved forward in a lurid light 
through wreathes of sulphuric fire and clouds of bat- 
tle smoke, over fields drenched in blood and strewed 
with wounded and the dead. Rank meets rank in 
dreadful array, in the death rattle. Amid the bellow- 
ingsof the fiery tempest, the lightning flashes and the 
din and clash of arms that resound far and wide, the 
bugle's sound the charge, and dark clouds of armed 
horsemen with scarlet hosts, angels of death, rush 
shouting to the fray. Rank after rank go crushing 
down before them, glory sabres rise and fall : the horse 
and their riders career over the living and plunge down 
among the dying and the dead. The cannoneer is cut 
down at his gun, the artillerymen is swept away by the 
fearful avalanche that bears down everything before it, 
and all seems lost, when signal guns and blazing rockets 
herald the coming of the Blucher of the fight. We hear 
bugle notes and the war trumpet ; drums are beating, 
and lo ! in the distance an army with banners is fly- 
ing to the rescue ! The earth trembles, as cavalry and 
batteries of artilery come thundering down like a 
sweeping tornado, wheel into line, unlimber guns and 
open a tempest of fire that crashes through and sweeps 
away resisting ranks, raining all around a hurricane 
of fire and death, until every hilltop blazes with ven- 
geance, and each mountain peak shouts for liberty, as 
they echo back the thunders of loud-mouthed can- 
non, that reverbrate from mountain to mountain, 



— 16— 

shaking the earth and making still more terrific the roar 
of battle, the shouts of combattants, the groans of the 
wounded, the tempest of fire and the din and clash of 
arms, while elsewhere on the ensanguined plain, with 
sabres Mashing and cavalry charging, in the smoke, and 
fire, and blaze of incessant volleys of musketry, long 
lines of the embattling hosts meet and' confront each 
other; with nerves strung to the utmost tension, and 
eyes flashing lire, they spring forward, shouting, to 
the charge — bayonets are crossed. The shock is tre- 
mendous. The human wave rolls backwards and for- 
wards like that of the sea. The banners and plumes 
of kindred, yet opposing warriors, go down in the 
shock of battle. Ranks thin and disappear; men 
faint, the} fall, they fly. It is the death grapple of 
young liberty with the mightiest empire upon earth, 
with death in front and desolation in the rear. 

The oppressed of all nations are anxious spectators. 
The world's last hope of freedom seems dependent 
upon the triumph of American liberty. Aristides and 
Cato, Epamanondas, Demosthenes and Cicero, with 
the champions of freedom of all the heroic ages for 
thirty centuries, are gazing down upon the closing 
scenes in the great drama, from pavilions in the skies, 
and the American people, with the martyred heroes of 
every battlefield, are watching with intense interest 
the changing fortunes of the day : some irom nearer 
camping grounds, others from the distance, and some 
from the Elysian fields beyond the river of death ! 

A light breaks upon the horizon ! Cornwallis and 
Lord Rawdon — valiant British commanders, with the 
butcher Tarlton, are overrunning the South. The 
lightning flashes of victory from King's mountain, the 
Cowpens, and Entaw Springs, herald their defeat ! 
They ard driven back, and the American lines, with 
the heroic LaFayette among the^ leaders, are every- 
where contracting around the invaders, like the gath- 
ering coil of a great boa constrictor. Count De 



Grasse, with a French squadron, drives back the 
British fleet, teaching proud Britannia, the Island 
Empress of the Seas, that she does not always rule 
the wave ! The veteran Count De Rochambeau, 
with the Duke De Lauzun, the Marquises De St. 
Simon, Chattelux and de la Rouerie, (Colonel Ar- 
mand) Counts De Dumas, Duxponts, De Fersen, and 
Viscount De Noailles, Baron De Vimenil, the Che- 
valier De Lameth, and Generals De Choisy, De Bevil 
and Duportails, with the embryo Marshal Berthier, 
and other military chieftains — a brilliant cavalcade of 
plumed warriors, the proud representatives of an 
empire, young champions of freedom, of the noblest 
blood of Franee, with French legions, emblazoned all 
over with the insignia of glory, under the guidance 
of Washington, marching side by side, shoulder to 
shoulder with the sons of liberty, the dark battalions 
of the young Republic and their chosen leaders, — the 
peerless La Fayette, the veterans Knox, Steuben and 
Lincoln, with those young white-plumed warriors, 
the gallant and heroic leaders of a triumphant assault, 
Colonels Hamilton, Lawrence, Gimat, and Major 
Fish, with Baron De Vimenil, Chevalier De Lemeth, 
Counts De Dumas, Duxponts and Mansfield, Sireuil 
and Olney, with other brave defenders of a new-born 
empire, storming batteries and rolling back the waves 
of British oppression, until the last hostile foot is ex- 
pelled from our shores, by the surrender of Cornwal- 
lis at Yorktown, when Washington, who had been 
more highly favored by Heaven than the great com- 
mander of Israel. He had led his people through the 
wilderness and across the Jordan, and had placed them 
in full possession of the promised land, and stood be- 
fore the world glory-crowned, with humanity, the 
most beautiful lily blooming in the coronation wreath 
that entwined his brow. Around him were his com- 
panions in arms, heroes of many battles, warworn and 
bronzed, in faded and tattered uniforms, with arms 



— iS— 

broken and defaced — they were endeared to him by 
long service. They had passed with him through 
those scenes that tried men's souls. He had cared lor 
them, and watched over them until his locks were 
wet with the dews of night, and they were ready to 
follow his lead, if to traverse volcanic fires. 

Since which a hundred years have chased each 
other in swift pursuit, to join the years beyond the 
flood, until the Centennial Year of Jubilee has come, 
and not one of the great actors in that eventful dra- 
ma are here to join in the exultations of an enfran- 
chised people. It matters not ! The seed time has 
passed and the harvest has come : the abundant har- 
vest, not only to their children, but to their children's 
children, and many a stranger race. And faith's 
transpiercing eye will behold them through time's 
shadow)^ night, as they walked the earth in robes of 
immortal dignity, with their lives in their hands, fear- 
less of the gibbet that was frowning upon them, ready 
to go bound to the altar, to secure institutions the best 
adapted to the condition of man, in a perfected state, 
that would elevate the human race. 

" They are not here ! " 

"They sleep their last sleep, they have fought their last battle," 
And no sound but the last Jubilee trump can awake them to 
glory again. 

No, they are not here, for each at the appointed 
time was dismissed from his earthly watch, and they 
have [gone to join our Washington, and those other 
stars that revolve around a common centre in the 
clear upper sky, where in the constellation of glory, 
and in the freshness of immortal bloom, they will 
shine brighter and brighter through the added dusk 
of each succeeding year, as long as time continues to 
endure. Rear high, then, ye descendants of the 
mighty dead, the Centennial Monument of Glory to 
their memory, and place the last stone in its sea-built 
tower, if it costs years and years of toil to rear, that 



—19— 

passing mariners of all nations may behold it far out 
at sea, and the sun greet it with its first morning ray, 
as it comes wheeling up from the eastern abyss upon 
its gorgeous chariot — wheels of fire, and linger last 
around it with its evening beams, as if reluctant to leave 
it, until it shall sink to fade no more behind the blue 
west 

The tree of liberty planted by the Pilgrims, watch- 
ed over and watered with their tears, and guarded 
by the Revolutionary Fathers, as the tree of life, with 
a two-edged sword, that cleaved the four winds of 
Heaven, was slow of growth, sending broad and deep 
its roots into the earth, and raising its massive and 
and majestic trunk in all the beauty of its fair pro- 
portions, high above all the monarch of the forest, 
bearing the buddings of an immortal fruit, and shoot- 
ing abroad its branches of flame to light the nations. 
In view of which the down-trodden and oppressed 
took hope, and other nations are slipping their moor- 
ings and sailing out from among the despotisms of 
the earth, to follow us in a bright career. 

The noblest spirits of Great Britain opposed the 
iron rule of the colonies, and subsequent generations 
of her people have repudiated it, and England, once 
our cruel and oppressive, but now fond mother, proud 
of her illustrious daughter with freer institutions that 
are fast perfecting, has taken up her position on the 
side of the more equal rights of man ; and France, 
Imperial France, once our great ally, so long enchained 
by the dazzling glories of the Empire, has broken her 
chains and come to the front in robes of glory, to join . 
the illustrious convoy. The Lions of England, the 
Stars and Stripes, the Eagles and Lilies of France, 
are in line, with America, the world's vanguard of free- 
dom, with the flag of the tree, the Star Spangled Banner, 
in advance. And may He who rules in Heaven spirit 
them on, hand in hand, down the track of time, with 
a tread that shall shake the earth, upon an immortal 



— 20 — 

and evangelizing march, never to be checked until 
through the instrumentality of their birds of com- 
merce, whose spread wings are whitning every sea, 
they have engrafted free institutions and one language 
upon every land beneath the sun, and unveiled the 
star of redemption upon earth's utmost verge, when 
the millenniel glory will fill the earth, with God's le- 
gions, and old Gabriel with the army of the blessed 
and angel hosts rallying around the victorious ban- 
ners of a triumphant cross, as they deploy before the 
great white throne, amid loud hosannas and the 
joyous echoings of the thunder-guns of Heaven, with 
the merry Christmas bells ringing out everywhere, 
when the morning drum will beat an endless Jubilee 
around the world, whose inspiring notes will come 
echoing back with the celestial music of the spheres, 
as when the " Morning stars sang together and all 
the Sons of God shouted for joy ! " 




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